A BUS service linking towns and villages in the North York Moors is under threat of the axe because it is too expensive to run.

The MoorsBus operation could come to an end in October 2013 as the North York Moors National Park Authority tries to tackle a 21 per cent cut in Government funding.

It runs between April and October and allows visitors to travel across the popular tourist area, but the authority’s chairman, Jim Bailey, said the service was heavily subsidised and one of the most obvious areas where savings could be made.

“The MoorsBus is very popular and very important to what the national park does, especially bringing in people from outside,” he said.

“But it’s a very expensive service to run. Some of our partners in the private sector are cutting back bus routes as well and we can’t operate as an island, running a service without proper links. Even if we doubled the fares, the service is so heavily subsidised it wouldn’t really make a difference.”

The authority’s budget is set to drop from £5.1 million to £4.3 million by 2013 and other savings measures include reducing staff levels by 16 per cent in the last year and introducing pay-and-display machines at car parks. Mr Bailey said it still had £100,000 available for some form of public transport operation within the national park.